Is ebay getting worse??

[c_mount]

Range of things not what it used to be, especially used items, and it appears a LOT more asian/chinese sellers and their junk, not just o/s but within Australia!

Quality and standards have dropped. Ebay is dying a slow commercial death.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

for many, eBay is nothing like it was when they started out.

For me, eBay fees have changed significantly since I joined in 2009.  I used to have to pay listing fees even if an item didn't sell and the higher the start price the higher the fee.  I got one photo free and had to pay 25 cents for every photo after that.  There were 'stepped' percentage final-value-fees with a cap at about $49 mark.  Now there are 40 free listings per month for casual sellers, 12 photos free with each listing,fvf is fixed at 9.9% and includes postage amount, 3 free relists that do not count towards the 40-free listings

I my opinion, the biggest change for sellers in my time on eBay has been this stupid defects system where sellers get dinged for things that they have no control over.  Even if a seller gets a positive feedback they can get a defect if they get a 1 or 2 on one of their DSRs.  At least this will be changing in Feb of next year.

For buyers, there are many that think that eBay used to be the place to get a bargain, sort of like "one man's trash is another man's treasure" with sellers happy to get anything for what they were seller as they no longer needed the items.  Over time, the number of serious sellers has grown compared to casual sellers which has seen sellers starting items with higher start bids, which many buyers complain about to this day.

eBay has sought to attract big chain stores and has promoted the Buy-It-Now format which is not conducive to buyers getting bargains, hence the complaints that there are no bargains any more.

The growth of the Chinese sector of eBay is just a matter of numbers.  The number of manufacturers, the number of wholesalers, the number of Chinese citizens wanting to make a better life for themselves is beyond the comprehension of many of us here in Australia.  Can't blame people for wanting a better life, and for some Chinese this means scamming 'affluent' westerners.  I use the word 'affluent' as most Aussies would be affluent compared to regular Chinese citizens struggling to get by.  There are also many home-grown scammers, especially for tech items such as mobile phones.

[cmcoins2000]

Yes.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

the other thing I meant to mention was "Best Match", which I find a misnomer because if I ever search using Best Match the results are nothing like the best match for me.  My default search preference is "ending soonest".

[phorum_junkie*]

I too find it is much cheaper to sell now than in the so called "good old days". My sales have gone down slightly in number this session but I have kept about the same level as profit as for the same month last year when I actually started sellng again earlier in April.

The 3 free relists, and I even got them on my store id when they were giving out free auction listings, make a huge difference as do the number of free extras we have had lately. In past years I had to eke out the 40 free listings over a month and use another id if I wanted more than that. At the moment I have over 60 items on offer and they are just getting relisted every week so a fraction of the work I did for less exposure last year.

I don't have any problems with the Chinese sellers other than the fact that they may put newbies off buying on ebay if they use them early on for expensive carp. I buy a fair few things for myself on aliexpress, not for resale I might add. I am not competing in the same categories for the most part and would not ever consider trying to beat them at their own game with the cheapo items that they mostly sell.

[bimberiretrosystems]

I just can't believe how dismal ebay is this year-it seems as though many many sellers have just left-trust has been eroded with the MoneyBackGuarantee rubbish and these people will never return.  For this time of year there is NOTHING worth buying-it reminds me of the poverty you find on quicksales.

Seems as though back to local markets is the best bet to get anything good.

[jbmbkb]

ive been a seller of used items for alot of years and stopped about 2 months ago due to ebays ridiculous money back guarrantee and scammers and i for one will never return as a seller ..im sure im not the only one, as theres no where near the amount of used items that interest me that there used to be on ebay.

[ytwo000]

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@c_mount wrote:

Range of things not what it used to be, especially used items, and it appears a LOT more asian/chinese sellers and their junk, not just o/s but within Australia!

Quality and standards have dropped. Ebay is dying a slow commercial death.

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Is ebay getting worse??...No....Its already got there.

[tastiger1]

Agree. The time is ripe for something better to appear, but what it will be we wll not know until it happens. Even bricks/mortar auction houses are doing it tough - if you put something in their auctions it will almost certainly get butchered. If you can take $100 a day at markets consider yourself lucky - time to think outside the square. Perhaps you are in the wrong business.

[springyzone]

A decade ago it seemed to have more mum & dad sellers and 99% of listing were from Australia, unless you looked through the separate list of' From international sellers', but now it is chock a block full of Asian businesses and a lot of what I would call cheap junky stuff. All new.

There are still a few private, small time sellers around but it's a changing world.

My sister & I sold a couple of thousand items back in about 2003-2005 but I wouldn't like to try it now. Back then, buyers had to put a lot of trust in sellers as they paid into bank accounts and relied on sellers to do the right thing and describe things accurately & post. Buyers could get scammed.

Now it has gone a bit the other way & it is sellers who can be scammed.